did have the keys to the cottage .She could have been the one .I think the bar lady may have been the cat napper as her cat did nt go missing and as was said earlier why did she throw the doll in the fire .Did the doll have some sort of power

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I have a hard time believing that a cat owner would skin and torture other peoples' cats. Besides, where is her motivation? We didn't see any sign of her being under the Agers' influence.

I have a hard time believing that a cat owner would skin and torture other peoples' cats. Besides, where is her motivation? We didn't see any sign of her being under the Agers' influence.

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Agreed. Morgan Mankle, the bar owner, really didn't have much of a role or history in the game (compared to other characters) for her to have been the catnapper/torturer and creator of the nightmare room.

Nigel is 30 in TLC: when he is talking to the Vicar of Northfield Parish and the Vicar talks about himself being a newcomer, only been there 30 years, Nigel states "I am 30". I assummed the year in TLC was between Sep 7 2007 and Jun 21, 2010 because that is the effective date of Lucy's student card. So if he was recruited by Hadden in 1978, was a paranormal student (along with Polly White) in Darkfall The Journal in 2002 and 30 years old in TLC, he had to have been recruited at birth! I really wish Jonathan Boakes could clear this up.

Great observation. I forgot about that conversation with the vicar. The year in TLC should be 2008 since that is also when Lucy is "recruited" by Hadden.

Very very curious... perhaps he was recruited at birth. Could Nigel be "the experiment"? After all, he did break into the Hadden computers to view Project Dark Fall.

Maybe there will be a sequel for us to ponder Nigel's situation even further.

ETA: If Jonatham does plan on further games with Nigel and the mystery surrounding him and Hadden, then I think I don't want an explanation about his age, what Hadden does either. It would spoil it for future storytelling.

I've been dying to take a peek at this thread for days now, but had to finish my review of The Lost Crown first. I make it a rule never to read other reviews, or look at plot spoilers, before I've completed my own review. I feel it could adversely skew my personal perception of the game... anyway, the review is done and dusted now:

I decided not to bother putting my observations in spoiler tags, as this whole thread is one big spoiler anyway.

So... I think Ivinia is probably the closest to figuring out what is really going down here. Well spotted, Ivinia I now realise that the 'tears' in the scenes at the two churches are intentional (when I noticed the first one at Northfield, I thought it was a glitch!), and also the rust-coloured blots in the scene at the pier next to the cottage (like you see on old negatives that have been damaged) after Nigel finds the crown.

And old photos are black and white, right? Just like the game itself Also, I just noticed when perusing my screenshots that the train Nigel rode into town on is called 'Sleep Walker'. Yes, there are these subtle hints everywhere, it seems.

that the date on the crate shipped by Hadden was 'April 1978'. Interestingly, that's still 25 years after Molina committed suicide. I'm still trying to figure out which bits of the game (if any) took place in modern times and which in the past...

Was the Nigel in the game "real?" Or was he just a computer copy (or avatar) of the "real" one? (the "real" one being the one in Dark Fall). If the gameworld was recreated from photographs, maybe the Nigel in the game was simply an AI programmed to resemble the real Nigel. The whole game could be taking place inside one of Haddon's computers -- a simulation of what might happen if Nigel actually visited Saxton.

If this were the case, it might be a reason why Nigel's manner of speaking resembles certain voice menus, which can react to your input but which usually have choppy speech (and sometimes even speech recorded by different microphones). For example when you phone up the electric company about a power outage, and it reads back from pieces of recorded messages so you can verify your phone number where you're located. Or when you phone up for the correct time, the voice that says "The time is..." is separately recorded from the snippet that says "ten" which is separately recorded from the snippet that says "forty."

Yes, that's what I thought of too about his speech pattern after the discussion in the other Lost Crown thread. But was Nigel computer-generated or is he real. And if real, has he always been manipulated by Hadden? Because if he wasn't real why would he break into the computers to view the Project Dark Fall files?

This discussion is so fascinating. I hope that Jonathan knows how much interest that his game has caused in this community -- pondering the storyline after the game is long over.

Yes, that's what I thought of too about his speech pattern after the discussion in the other Lost Crown thread. But was Nigel computer-generated or is he real. And if real, has he always been manipulated by Hadden? Because if he wasn't real why would he break into the computers to view the Project Dark Fall files?

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I think Nigel is real in Dark Fall. But I think the Nigel we see in Lost Crown may be only a computer simulation that was based on Nigel. The Haddon Industries programmer fed the computer all the information he knew about the real Nigel (Nigel's personality, the type of person he was, what choices he'd make in certain situations, etc). And the computer generated this Nigel avatar. The avatar is placed in the scenario where he believe's he's stolen something from Haddon Industries and has to go into hiding in the remote village of Saxton. As far as the Nigel avatar knows, he is Nigel and he's on the run. And that's what you believe because you're playing from the avatar's point of view.

Alternatively, the theft did take place -- but only in the virtual world created by Haddon Industries. The items that were "stolen" were virtual objects in a virtual representation of Haddon Industries. The only "real" person you saw in the game may have been Mr. Haddon (who programmed the whole situation to see how it would play out).

It's possible that the avatar did something unexpected when it stole the pictures and printouts. Or maybe Mr. Haddon put the idea in its head. The two people who were talking to Mr. Haddon in the opening cut scene may or may not have been part of the simulation.

The Nigel who was a graduate student in Dark Fall doesn't necessarily have to have joined Haddon in 1978. Nor was the real Nigel necessarily on the run from Haddon Industries at any time.

Of course it's all very convoluted because we're playing a game on our computers -- a game in which we're playing as a character in another character's (Haddon's) game/simulation.

At http://www.thelostcrown.co.uk/ is written: Beneath her outward, jovial, existence Lucy feels damaged by an event in her past. Her adventures with Nigel will bring that secret to the surface, exposing Lucy to know far more than she has let on.I missed this totally in the game. I only remember Lucy talking about an scary event she had in harbour cottage when she was young. What is the text passage refearing at?

When Nigel hacked into Lab D files, he downloaded two pictures. And it talked about a chasm. What if Nigel went through the chasm and everything he is experincing in Saxton is through that chasm. Also - everyone seems to know his name. Nanny know said he had been expected for sometime.

that Nigel went through that chasm. But Ivinia had a much better idea.

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In my mind while playing I was thinking that it was all an experiment by the Hadden corporation and that you really weren't "there". I figured with all of his equipment he had, it was possible to transport an individual into a photograph and live in it's world. Hence the tears in some screens and the rust in the lower left corner of the screen next to Nigels place when it was raining. Going back into those photos lets you go back into that time period and explore. …Based on when the photos were taken, it could explain a lot of the different time periods.

Seems a very good explanation to me, it explains the the time anomalies and the black-and-white-grafik of the game.

The chasm

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is the connection between two worlds: the normal every day world and the world of the Fenlaria (who can only walk at night and in the shadow – like ghosts). Only the crown (as stated in The Legend of Grindle and Ganwolf) holds the Fenlaria back in their world. Without the magic of the crown, the world will turn black and the Fenlaria are

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able to walk abroad.

In the Legend of Grindle and Ganwolf,

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Grindle offered the thief of the crown a chance to repent. But he refused. Nigel, too, got this chance. He took this opportunity. So he survived the stealing of the crown. The last sentences of the Legend:

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A selection of folk were chosen, to protect the crown through time and change.

We see this folk at the end of the game: they surround Nigel, when he restores the crown. It took me a while to notice that no Ager brother is amongst them.